I know that Wellington has a pigeon problem, but it does seem to have grown all out of proportion…. seen here near Prefab cafe. Does anyone have advice on how to kill / dissuade pigeons ? Even if they are smaller than this one….?
Post-script: far from flying away completely, following its disappearance from Prefab, the giant bird is now perching on a rooftop at the side of Briscoes, picking up scraps of a bargain no doubt.
Run an over-hyped ebola scare campaign targeted towards them?
….or, put out a scare campaign that ebola is actually carried by pigeons, and that WHO needs to eradicate all pigeons to reduce the chance of disease..! There – killed many birds with one stone / microbe / whatever…
If we got rid of pigeons, wouldn’t we just have some other problem – sparrows/rats/flies/other scavenging pest?
Perhaps we should introduce weka or kea into the urban environment to replace the pigeon!
Squirrels!
can you imagine the damage flocks of mischievous Kea would do.
Weka, kea, or squirrels would just be different flavored little critters flocking everywhere. Instead if we replace hundreds of wee rascal problems with an elephant then all problems solved, bar one
but if we kept it in a room, then everyone would just ignore it… problem solved!
Mind you, if i had an elephant on my balcony crapping every morning, it might be worse than a pigeon or two.
Then there’d be some rapscallion purposefully feeding them peanuts, encouraging the hefty beasts to keep coming back!
Before you know it, they’d be mating in public, with parents having to make up stories about why one elephant is trying to jump over the other one but can’t quite make it.
Doesn’t need to be in a room Max – there’s a certain elephant in a park meme to be explored too:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/arts-minister-ros-bates-labels-giant-elephant-art-the-world-turns-example-of-labor-waste/story-e6freoof-1226497317733?nk=0e3b12ac06f601be59d0e8e1e9a62c93
Yep, there’s a super-size stoush brewing over that particular jumbo – more than is mentioned here. Far from being happy with the prospect of a fantastic Michael Parakowhai sculpture, a giant bronze elephant balanced on its nose, eyeballing a local rodent. Being an ironic work of art, it refers to the old indo-European legend of a elephant scared of a mouse. In this case, a native Aussie rat-type thing is standing in for the ordinary rattus rattus (or mousus mousus). Trouble is, the local indigenous people are angry that their alliance with their local rodent has been usurped by an interloping legend – they have plenty of legends of their own of course – and to make matters even more awkward, the fund the sculpture was funded from was specifically earmarked for work by native artists. That means: Aussie natives, not Kiwi natives.
Hell, if they don’t want it, I’d gladly have it.
FYI – the bird has now been removed
The Aussies have other elephants of their own, it seems:
http://www.liberaltimes.com.au/2014/06/abbott-denies-presence-of-climate-change-elephant/
Gangstar – it has flown away to a nearby perch…. see new photo above
There is/was another pigeon by Miramar Wharf. Judging by the way it started peeling off after some rain they don’t get removed they just fly away.
Max,
Related article: Fax Machines Are Our Future Says Abbott
;D
I’ll be following this closely, to find out if they have a means of killing off these flying fatties:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/10667435/Would-you-like-pigeon-poo-with-that